Who's the Best TV Nurse? - allnurses in the news

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Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

allnurses in the news

Parade.com published an article today in honor of National Nurses Week. To celebrate the occasion, they posted a poll to find out who America thinks is the best fictional nurse on television.

allnurses was also featured in the article as a place where "real nurses" network.

And if you'd like to pay tribute to some real-life nurses this week, head over to allnurses.com, a networking site for RNs and nursing students. There, you can write a thank you message and the site will share it with its users.

The last portion refers to our new ThankANurse site, which was launched on Nurses Day 2014.

To read the entire article and participate in the poll, go to It's National Nurses Week! Poll: Who's the Best TV Nurse?

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Specializes in Oncology.

Nurse Carol Hathaway will always be my favorite!

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The nurse Lt. Coleen McMurphy (actress Dana Delaney)on "China Beach". She was a bad ass!

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Nurse Jackie. JUST KIDDING!!

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Specializes in CCU, Geriatrics, Critical Care, Tele.

I agree, Nurse Carol Hathaway from ER has my vote as well! I really enjoyed ER!

It's nice to see allnurses.com get mentioned in the article! Happy Nurses Week everyone!

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Carla from Scrubs. Only TV show that ever gave nurses even close to half the credit they deserve.

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Sorry, but you all are just wrong! *LOL*

There is only *ONE* television nurse who is worth considering for her value to the nursing profession, and that is Major Margaret Houlihan of M*A*S*H

To anyone that has worked with or known military nurses from the WWII through Vietnam era am sure you'll agree Major Houlihan got much of it right.

She was a capable nurse and competent administrator who knew how to *motivate* her staff without suffering fools gladly. Whatever leffs the "girls" may have had on their off time MH expected (and often got) professionalism in the OR with everyone giving 100%.

When a group of GI's were sent to clean the OR and one seemed to have problems grasping the concept of mopping the floor MH was right there: "solider the mop goes *IN* the bucket then onto the FLOOR"! *LOL*

In real life had the pleasure (err umm if you could call it that, *LOL*) of working with a few ex-military nurses and am here to tell you the idea of "lunatics running the asylum" simply wouldn't fly. They were fair but not push overs. You either did your work or were gone off their floors/units, end of story.

As for the others in the poll, have never seen any of the nurses on Scrubs including Carla remotely do anything related to the profession much less advance the thing.

In fact am shocked that so many other great medical dramas of the past often with excellent nurse characters were not included in this so called poll. Saint Elsewhere, Trapper John, M.D., and even Emergency all had great nurses and plots that related to often what was actually going on in the profession at the time.

One of my fav Trapper John, M.D. episodes has the DON leading her nurses into battle against a physician dead set against AP nurses expanding their scope of practice in hospital. Said physician even goaded a patient to bring legal action against a nurse she felt was getting to big for her britches.

For anyone working during the 1980's and the beginning AP nurse movement this was relevant stuff! In real life no small number of physicians were up in arms over the thought of *NURSES* who they saw as a bunch of women in white dresses and funny hats moving into the practice of medicine. The idea that what they saw as only a diploma educated person getting their hands on a script pad was more than some doctors were willing to bear.

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Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.

Nurse Dixie McCall, of course.

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As for the others in the poll, have never seen any of the nurses on Scrubs including Carla remotely do anything related to the profession much less advance the thing.

Hmm. You must've missed the early episodes where she and Laverne taught the new docs...well, pretty much everything from a practical standpoint. And the episode where she knew what was wrong way, way before the docs did.

It's hardly a perfect show, and I'm not going to go into a whole multi-paragraph post to support my point because, well, I simply don't think it's that important. But from what I've seen (I intentionally avoid medical dramas, especially when they involve the military), Scrubs is at least tolerable compared to something like ER or Gray's Anatomy.

To anyone that has worked with or known military nurses from the WWII through Vietnam era am sure you'll agree Major Houlihan got much of it right...In real life had the pleasure (err umm if you could call it that, *LOL*) of working with a few ex-military nurses and am here to tell you the idea of "lunatics running the asylum" simply wouldn't fly. They were fair but not push overs. You either did your work or were gone off their floors/units, end of story.

Just so you're tracking, I am a military nurse--active duty.

As far as lunatics "running the asylum", what exactly would you call the government, of which we military nurses are a part? And we absolutely have our lunatics, about which we can do (admittedly) very little. Ever tried to discipline/fire a DOD civilian? Just bang your head on a wall and save yourself the trouble.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Added my 2 cents to poll

Loved Julia as realistic RN but others have had farther better portrayal of nursing and character development.

How could they miss China Beach nursing staff ... plus cool collected, Dixie McCall from Emergency??

Here's my top lineup: Character/ Show/ Actress

First Lieutenant (later Captain) Colleen McMurphy portrayed by Dana Delany gets my #1 vote.

#2: Carol Hathaway - ER/ Julianna Margulies

#3: Major Margaret Houlihan-MASH /Loretta Swit

#4: Nurse Helen Rosenthal - St. Elsewhere/ Christina Pickles

#5: Dixie McCall-Emergency/ Julie London

#6: Nurse Jackie / Edie Falco

#7:Julia/ Diahann Carroll,

#8: Samantha Taggart-ER/Linda Cardellini

#9: Consuelo Lopez-Marcus WelbyMD/Elena Verdugo

#10: Nurse Bobbie Spencer- General Hospital/ Jacklyn Zeman

Check out Wiki's List of Fictional Nurses

China Beach :

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Oh, I remember Marg! K.C. from K.C.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

I loved Carla from Scrubs! They half showed what being a nurse is like & she stood up for herself against the doctors.

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